The Irresponsible One
by Spots on a Pony
Summary: After a day of hard work, Joe wishes he were an only child.


Bonanza Bits #110

**Prompt:** A character says, "I wish I were an only child."

**Feedback:** Any and all welcomed, public or private.

The Irresponsible One

By

Spotted Pony

It was a fine day in late autumn when Joe rode Cochise to the area of the ranch where he would be working at fixing fence. This particular section of fence was supposed to have been repaired weeks ago, but one thing or another had prevented the Cartwrights from doing any work beyond the delivery of the supplies and equipment necessary for the repairs to a nearby line shack.

As Joe entered the meadow near the line shack, he was surprised to discover a small herd of cattle grazing there. _Where did these cattle come from, _Joe thought as he rode around the small herd. Noting the Ponderosa's pine tree brand on the bull and the adult cows. "These must be the cattle that Adam and Hoss couldn't find when we were bringing them down for branding this spring," Joe told Cochise. "Pa will be pleased to know that they showed up at last. He had given them up as being rustled."

Joe had his own theories about the missing cattle. Both Adam and Hoss had things going on in Virginia City at the time that spring and Joe suspected that their searches had been less than thorough. It was very annoying, he was the one who got lectured about irresponsibility and the valuable missing cattle while his brothers got to go to town and kick up their heels. But that was in the past, and now he had to decide what to do about the cattle. Of course the calves hadn't been branded, and they would be easy pickin's for any rustlers who noticed the lack of brands. They could cut the calves from the herd, put a brand on them and there wouldn't be any way the Cartwrights could claim them back if the rustlers would be caught. So the first order of business, even before fixing fence, was to get those calves branded. And it wouldn't be easy. The herd had a good summer and the calves were well grown for their ages. Hoss was the one that generally threw the calves for branding in the spring with very little effort, but these calves were much bigger and would even give big brother problems, and Joe would have to do the job all by himself.

The first thing was to get organized. He took out his tally book and noted the date, location and breed of the cattle. Carefully riding through the herd, he noted that there was one bull, twelve cows and fourteen unbranded calves, for a total of twenty-seven head. Joe was surprised at the number of calves, which included two sets of twins. He would note the sexes of the calves as he branded them. Next was to scout out a place for and getting a fire started, and then locating something to brand the calves with. Ben Cartwright had made it a policy that running irons and stamp irons weren't to be kept at the line shacks, no use making it easy for rustlers to steal their cattle or cause trouble by putting the Ponderosa brand on another rancher's stock. While there was the usual method of using a cinch ring and a couple of sticks to put a brand on an animal in a pinch, Joe was never able to get a good clear brand by this method. So Joe went through the fence fixing equipment and found a pry bar he thought would work for drawing the brand on the calves.

Returning to the fire, he shoved the end of the pry bar into the hottest part of the fire. With a piggin' string tucked under his belt, he roped a calf and drug it to the fire. Now came the hard part, throwing and tying the calf so he could brand it. With Cochise keeping the rope tight, Joe worked his way to the uncooperative calf and endeavored to throw and tie it. After a struggle that entailed Joe getting slammed to the ground and rolled on by the husky calf, he managed to get the calf's legs tied. Limping slightly, he went to the fire and examined the pry bar to see if it was hot enough to brand with. Deciding it was the right color; he returned to the calf and drew the pine tree on its thigh. After returning the pry bar to the fire, he took out his tally book and taking a glance at the backside of the calf; he realized there was still one thing that needed to be done. Heating his knife, he turned the bull calf into a steer and so noted it in his tally book.

Most of the calves were repeats of the first. After he had done about four of the calves, Joe desperately wanted to quit, he hurt so bad, but the thought of the praise he would get for saving these valuable cattle from rustlers, kept him going. By the time he finished with the thirteenth calf, Joe was certain that there wasn't part of his body that hadn't been stomped on, kicked, butted and rolled on. It was painful to draw a full breath and Joe suspected that he had some cracked ribs. Carefully coiling his rope, he mounted Cochise and went looking for the last calf. Apparently someone took pity on him, the last calf was a model of cooperation. Joe only needed to drop a loop around the bull calf's neck and it followed him docilely to the fire and allowed Joe to throw and tie him without a struggle. However, the bull calf wasn't pleased when Joe burned the Ponderosa brand on him. The calf looked at Joe reproachfully as Joe approached him with the knife. Looking over the calf, Joe reconsidered castrating him. Besides his rather good temperament, the young bull had nice lines and good conformation. So Joe decided to leave him entire. To make up for the branding, Joe hobbled over to Cochise and took an apple from the saddlebag. Cutting it up into quarters, Joe offered the calf a piece. The calf didn't want any part of it, so Joe slipped it into the calf's mouth. The calf rolled the piece of apple around in his mouth a bit before realizing that it was something good and eating it. While he ate the apple, Joe removed the rope from around the calf's neck and untied his legs. Once up, the calf eagerly ate the remainder of the apple Joe offered. Joe shooed the calf away and cut up another apple for Cochise.

Checking the position of the sun, Joe realized that he didn't have time to do any of the fence fixing work, even if he would have been physically able to do it. So he decided to quit for the day and start the cattle toward where the main herd was being held and go on home. Hopefully Pa would be pleased that this particular herd had been located and would go easy on him for not getting any of the fencing done. Maybe he would have Adam or Hoss come along to help or better yet, have them do the work, after all they were the ones who missed these cattle in the spring roundup.

Joe was in agony by the time he got home. The cattle didn't want to leave the still lush meadow and kept trying to scatter and go back to it. But finally Joe convinced them to move out and when they realized there were more cattle ahead, and became more cooperative and moving along with little encouragement from Joe. So when they came to a turnoff, he left them to drift on down to the main herd while he headed for home. As he took care of Cochise, he noted that his Pa and brothers weren't home yet. Hobbling to the kitchen, he found Hop Sing preparing supper. Blinking with annoyance at the intrusion into his domain, he opened his mouth to scold Joe, but taking in his disheveled appearance and blood-stained shirt, he instead asked, "What happen to you?"

Joe explained about finding the cattle and ended by asking, "After supper could you get a bath ready for me? I'm so sore I can hardly move."

Hop Sing bobbed his head. "You go get changed and washed up for supper. I let you know when water hot."

"Thanks, Hop Sing," Joe said gratefully. He then left the kitchen and made his way painfully up the stairs to his room to get ready for supper.

When he came down a short time later, he found his Pa and brothers had arrived and were waiting for him to join them at the table. None of them noticed how stiffly he moved as he made his way down the stairs and to the table. Ben nodded _hello_ to him as he took his place at the table.

Joe could hardly wait to tell everyone about the cattle, but before he could start, Ben said, "Adam, how did the negations on the timber deal with Mr. Jackson go?"

"Better than I expected," Adam replied, "Mr. Jackson made a offer for the timber we have on hand that I didn't think we could refuse. He needs it right away and we can start delivery by the end of the week. Then he'll take the entire cutting we're going to be making on the south slope at the same rates. He wants to pay now for what we have on hand and as for the rest; he'll pay half when we start delivering, and the other half when delivery is completed. I didn't see any reason to refuse him; we've done business with him before and have done well. As soon as we get what we have on hand cleared out, we can start the delivery on the south slope timber. With the men to start working up there next week, we shouldn't have any trouble meeting the delivery date."

"Well done, son," Ben told his eldest warmly. "I'll want to see the figures after supper."

"Sure Pa," Adam replied with a pleased smile.

"Ah Pa," Joe started, wanting to tell him about finding the cattle. "Guess what I"

Ben held up his hand, and interrupting him, "Just a moment Joe. Hoss, how did you do with Captain Benning and the cattle?"

"Almost as good as Adam," Hoss replied beaming. "I got $25 a head for 500 head. He'll be sending soldiers to take them back to the fort, we won't have to hire drovers at all. We'll just have to have the cattle at High Meadow in two weeks for him."

"Very good, Hoss," Ben told him. Adam and Joe also offered their congratulations.

"Oh, before I forget," Hoss continued, "On the way home, I met up with Kills the Bear, he said that he has the horses you want. He said that he and some other braves would bring the horses down the day after tomorrow and pick up the cattle you promised them. I said that would be fine and we'd make the trade at the branding pens. Is that all right?"

"That will be fine, Hoss," Ben said looking fondly at his middle son. "Tomorrow we'll have to cut out the cattle for Kills the Bear and start cutting out the steers for the army."

"Ah, speaking of cattle, Pa," Joe began again, only to have Adam interrupt.

"How did the Cattleman's meeting in Carson City go?"

"Just fine, Adam," Ben told his sons. "I was able to make a deal with Tom Anderson for more Hereford breeding stock to replace the bull and cows that we couldn't find this spring. He gave me a good price. He'll be bringing them over next week."

Joe tried again to tell his family about finding the missing Herefords, but again had his efforts drowned out by his brothers and their discussion of the merits of switching to purebred Herefords from the various crossbreeds and longhorns that they had been raising.

Now, Joseph," Ben said, turning his attention to his youngest, "How much of the fencing did you get done today?"

"I wasn't able to get any done," Joe started to explain, "Because"

"What do you mean you didn't get any of the fencing done," Adam interrupted. "Talk about irresponsible, that fence has to be fixed before winter sets in."

"Yes, but, I found," Joe tried again.

This time Hoss prevented him from finishing, "What in the world were you doing up there, Shortshanks? You should have been able to get _something _done. I'm plumb ashamed of you, Adam, Pa and I got our jobs done, you could have at least got some of your job done."

"If you'd let me finish," Joe said, getting annoyed. "I'd tell you"

"Tell us how you just wasted your time when you should have been working," Adam interjected sarcastically. "How you took a nap and woke up too late to get anything done? Or did you go fishing and lose track of time?"

"But I didn't" Joe tried again, indigently.

He was interrupted yet again, this time by his father. "Joe, that's enough," Ben said sternly. "I don't want to hear another word on what you did or didn't do today. You'll go back up tomorrow and work on the fence. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Joe muttered, looking down at his plate and blinking back tears. _Why wouldn't they let him explain? All that hard work was apparently for nothing. When they found the cattle, someone else would be given the credit for finding and branding the calves. __If I were an only child I would be able to get Pa to listen without being constantly interrupted by my brothers. _

Joe finished his meal in silence while the rest discussed their day. He kept his head down while Hop Sing cleared the table and brought out desert. He felt Hop Sing's hand on his shoulder as he placed a bowl with a large portion of his famous Ranch Pudding in front of him. He smiled his thanks to his friend. There at least was _someone _would listen to him and sympathize with him for the rough day he had.

"Hey, Hop Sing," Hoss said with a bit of a whine in his voice as Joe dipped his spoon into his serving. "Why did ya give Joe my portion?" Ranch Pudding was one of Hoss' favorites. Ben and Adam also weren't pleased either with their tiny portions of a favorite desert that they didn't get very often.

"Yes, Hop Sing," Adam said with a glare at his younger brother who was savering his portion, "why does _he _get so much?"

Returning Adam's glare with a hard look, Hop Sing replied, "Little Joe a good boy, he deserves it." He then gave the three a _don't argue with me if you want to eat _look. They took the not so subtle hint from the real boss of the Ponderosa and grumpily finished up and left the table, leaving Joe to finish his desert in peace.

When Joe got up from the table, he found that he had stiffened up considerably. Hobbling into the living room from the dining room, he was ignored by Ben and Adam who were going over the figures for the new timber contract and Hoss was concentrating on figuring out some fancy knot work that he was going to use to decorate a bridle. Going over to the fireplace, Joe carefully eased himself down on the hearthstone and leaned back on the warmed stone beside the fireplace and closed his eyes.

With his usual impeccable timing, Hop Sing came out of the kitchen with a tray with a coffee pot and three cups, just as Ben and Adam finished their discussion and Hoss was ready to take a break. "You bath water ready Little Joe," he said as placed the tray on the table and began to pour the coffee.

"Thank you, Hop Sing," Joe replied, giving his friend a pain filled smile as he got to his feet and headed to the washroom for his bath.

Hoss looked after Joe with annoyance and disbelief on his face. "Why is he getting a bath? He didn't do anything today and he's only gonna be fixing fence tomorrow."

Hop Sing finished pouring the coffee and put down the coffee pot hard enough to make the cups rattle. "Little Joe asked for bath," he stated firmly. Looking to include Ben and Adam, he continued, "Papa and brothers look but don't see, they hear but don't listen." With that cryptic comment, he turned on his heel and returned to the kitchen, muttering in his native Chinese, leaving three puzzled men behind him.

Joe eased himself into the tub and slid down to his chin. He couldn't believe how badly battered and bruised he was and how he had bruises where he'd never had them before. Later when he got out of the tub, he found that Hop Sing had brought down a clean nightshirt, so that he wouldn't have to get dressed and then undressed for bed. Feeling slightly better, decided to take Hop Sing's unspoken advice and go to bed early and get an early start the next morning. He collected three surprised looks as he crossed the living room and went up the stairs.

"Why's he going to bed so early," Hoss asked.

"He better not be planning to sneak out later," Adam replied. "You'd think he'd know better after his fooling around today. That fence needs to be fixed. It can't be put off any longer."

Ben just sighed and wondered what he was going to with his irresponsible youngest son.

Once in bed, Joe had difficulty finding a comfortable position. No matter how he laid, some part of his body hurt too much to allow him to go to sleep, especially his ribs when he took too deep of a breath. Sitting up, he lit a candle and considered what to do. Then he saw a pitcher of water and a glass on his nightstand beside a packet of one of Hop Sing's herb powders. Joe really didn't like taking anything for pain or to sleep, but if he intended to be up and away before anyone else, he needed to get some sleep. Hop Sing's remedy was very effective and Joe was asleep a few minutes after taking it and didn't stir when an hour or so later his Pa checked on him.

The next morning the three gathered at the table for breakfast.

"Where's Joe," Ben asked as they took their places at the table.

"He's not in his room," Hoss told him. "I checked as I came by, I thought he'd be down here."

"He probably snuck out last night and still hasn't got back," Adam added disgustedly. "You would think he'd learn."

Just then Hop Sing came from the kitchen with plates full of various breakfast items. He dropped the plates on the table spilling some of the eggs and dumping burnt toast and bacon on the table. "Little Joe not sneak out last night," he told them, "Little Joe get up very early and have breakfast with Hop Sing before going to fix fence. He take supplies and say that he not come home until fence is fixed. Prove to Papa and brothers that he not irresponsible son." He then stomped back into the kitchen, leaving the three to wonder what in the world was going on.

After breakfast they saddled up and rode out to the main herd to cut out the cattle for Kills the Bear and to start cutting out the cattle for the army. Charley, their foreman saw them coming and rode over to great them. Charley greeted Ben with a, "Hey Boss, I've got something to show you." He led them to a place about a half-mile away from the main herd, where another cowboy was holding the small herd of Herefords apart from the other cattle. "They just turned up this morning," he told his boss, "I don't know where they've been, so I figured it would be a good idea to keep them apart until you had a chance to have a look."

"Thanks, Charley," Ben told him. "What are the numbers on this herd?"

Charley took out his tally book and flipped to the correct page, "There is one bull, twelve cows and fourteen calves," he said.

"That's the number of the cattle we couldn't find last spring," Hoss said. "Those are good husky calves, where ever they were, they had a good summer."

"Yes they did," Ben said with a sigh. "Thanks for keeping them separate Charley. We're going to have to get a fire started and get those calves branded before putting them with the rest of the herd. They're too valuable to risk letting them go unbranded any longer than necessary."

"Won't need to," Charley told him, after shifting his tobacco to the other cheek and spitting. "They've already been branded, the bull calves been cut too."

Ben went pale at this. "What brand is on the calves?"

Charley blinked with surprise, "Why yours of course. They've maybe been done within the last day or two, would have to rope and throw one to have a good look to be sure."

Ben sighed with relief at this information. There would have been no end of trouble if the calves would have been showing another rancher's brand on their hides. Adam and Hoss were also relieved at this piece of news. The calves were a good two hundred pounds plus each and wouldn't be easy to throw and tie.

A calf that had wandered near the group of riders caught Adam's eye. "Hey Hoss, there's a bull calf that didn't get cut. How about I drop a loop on it for you to throw and tie, and I'll cut it?"

Hoss looked at the calf a bit and shook his head. "That there is a real nice looking bull calf, Adam. I reckon we could leave him alone. What do you think, Pa?"

Ben looked at the calf and decided he agreed with Hoss. "Yes, we'll leave him entire, Hoss. We can't have too many good purebred bulls."

Because none of the hands had admitted to finding and branding the calves, Ben decided that he, Adam and Hoss would backtrack the little herd and see if they could find and thank the person who found and branded the Ponderosa cattle. After giving Charley instructions about the cattle for Kills The Bear and the army, Ben and Adam followed Hoss to the edge of the meadow where he began looking for the herd's back trail. Once they found it, it was easy to follow. Soon they realized that they were heading in the direction of where Joe was supposed to be working on repairing the fence. As they rode along, Hoss would occasionally get down to examine the tracks he found more closely.

"Well at least we know Joe is up here now, and from the tracks, he was here yesterday," Hoss observed. "But what in the heck was he doing all day that he didn't get any of the fencing done?"

"Then maybe he saw whoever it was who found the cattle and branded them," Ben said.

"But why didn't he say something last night," Adam asked.

Leaving the trail left by the cattle, the three turned toward where they expected to find Joe working on the fence.

Joe had spotted them as they came over the rise and stopped work to wait for them. He had been developing a way to work without putting much strain on his sore ribs, and wasn't able to work very fast. As they rode up, Joe cringed at the scorn in Adam's eyes as he noted that he wasn't making much headway on the fence. Hoss looked thoughtful, while Ben looked pleased that Joe was actually doing some sort of work.

"Hello, Joe," Ben greeted his son. "You certainly got an early start this morning."

"Yes sir," Joe replied. He wondered why they had to come up and check on him. At the rate he was getting the fence fixed, he was going to be here several days and he wanted to be left alone while he worked.

"Did you see anyone up here yesterday," Ben asked.

"No," Joe replied shortly, hoping they would go away and let him get back to work. He turned his back on them and finished tying the rail in place with a piece of wet rawhide, he then moved carefully to the other end of the rail to raise and tie it in place. Seeing that they weren't going to get any more information out of him, the other three turned to find the trail of the cattle and see where they came from.

Soon they came to the meadow where it was obvious that the missing cattle had been grazing for a while. They split up and began searching for signs of the fire used to brand the calves or any clue to who had branded the calves. Then Adam called, "Over here."

He had found the remains of a small campfire. The fire had been carefully put out and the unburnt wood neatly stacked together. The area around the fire was torn up, and there were tracks of cattle and horses all around it. Adam waited until Ben and Hoss arrived. He knew that Hoss wouldn't thank him for getting down and adding his footprints to what was already there and maybe obscuring some important clue.

Hoss came alongside his Pa and brother before dismounting and ground tying Chubb. He walked around the outside edge of the torn up area and worked his way toward the fire. Squatting down every few feet, he would examine the dirt, grass and the tracks. _This was done yesterday, _he thought after examining the disturbed soil and comparing it to undisturbed soil. _From the size of the tracks it was those calves for sure. The blood from the castrations proves it. But who done it? _Continuing his examination of the ground, he found hoof prints that he recognized. Then he found a fairly clear print of a man's boot. He then put his own foot beside it to compare for size. He then examined the fire and the stack of wood.

"Well," Adam asked as Hoss stood up and faced them. "Do you have any idea who branded the calves and where we can find him?"

"Yep, I can," Hoss replied. "He's a kina puny fella, smaller than we are, and he rides a black and white Pinto."

"What," Adam exclaimed in disbelief. "Now you're going to tell us you know the horse's name too? Wait a minute, are you trying to tell us that _Joe _roped, threw, tied and branded those calves? I don't believe it."

"Yep, believe it older brother," Hoss told his brother and father. "I don't reckon how it could be anyone else unless someone the same size as Joe an' wearing the boots that Joe favors, was riding Cochise around up here. An' you know he doesn't let just anyone ride his pony."

"Well, how do you know it was Cochise," Adam asked. "Couldn't these tracks have been left by a horse of a similar size of feet and stride?"

"Yes, Hoss, how can you be so sure," Ben added.

"Well, it's like this," Hoss began. "A while back Cochise had a stone bruise. It broke out above the hoof and the crack in the hoof has been growing out. Just last week I had to put new shoes on him and because of that crack, I had to make a special shoe for that hoof in order to get enough nails in to hold the shoe on. Now the only tracks I see around here were made by a horse wearing that shoe. So that says to me pretty clear that instead of fixing fence, Joe was wrestling with calves and branding them. For a little guy like him, it probably took all day. He may have even gotten himself banged up a bit. There are signs that he had gotten rolled on a few times, an' those are mighty big calves."

"Then why didn't he tell us about it last night," Adam said.

"He did try to tell us _something_ last night," Ben said thoughtfully. "But we were all caught up in our own successes that we didn't give him a chance to tell us what he did all day. I asked him about how much fencing he got done instead of asking how his day went, and then we all jumped on him about not getting the fencing done. Getting those calves branded and back to the main herd _was_ more important than the fence. We could have lost those calves to rustlers and not been able to claim them back"

"Yea, I bet Hop Sing knew though," Hoss added. "Remember him saying about looking and seeing, hearing and listening. We didn't listen to him when he tried to tell us about the cattle and we didn't see how hurt he was by the cattle and us not listening."

Adam sighed, "I guess we owe him an apology. He did a good job with those calves. At least we don't have to go far. And we can give him a hand with the fence. What do you think, Hoss."

Hoss agreed with his brother and the three of them turned their horses' heads toward where Joe was working. While Ben felt bad about how his youngest had been treated, he was glad to know that he and his sons were willing to own up to their mistakes and make things right.

Joe had finally worked out a system for repairing the fence. Blocking everything out but how he moved, bent and lifted the rails, he didn't hear his family approaching until his father spoke to him. Startled, Joe moved wrong and felt and heard a pop in his side. He went down on his knees, clutching his ribs and gasping with pain. The other three immediately dismounted and rushed to his aid. Ben knelt beside him and putting his arm around his shoulders, eased Joe against him, while Hoss unbuttoned his shirt.

"Lordy, look at that," Hoss said as he got Joe's shirt open. Joe's chest and abdomen were covered with calf hoof shaped bruises. Hoss gently ran his hands down his brother's sides checking for broken ribs. His explorations caused Joe to cry out in pain and slump against his father in a faint. "Adam, bring me that saddle bag that Hop Sing made me bring along. I'll bet anything that there's something in there that will help Joe."

Hoss was right. Among other things, Hop Sing sent along material that Hoss used to bind Joe's ribs and make him more comfortable. A short while later, Joe regained consciousness, and found himself leaning against his father's shoulder with his father's arms around him.

Seeing him awake, Ben asked, "How are you feeling now, Joe?"

Taking a few careful breaths, Joe answered, "Better I guess. I'm sorry I didn't get much of the fence done yet."

"That doesn't matter, Joe," Ben told him. "I'm very proud of you for seeing what was most important and getting it done, even though it was a job that you needed to ask for help with. I wish we would have let you tell us about the calves last night, and I'm sorry I didn't listen. You did a very good job under the circumstances and I thank you." Ben then got the attention of Adam and Hoss who were working on the fence and waived them over.

"Hey, Short Shanks," Hoss said as he knelt beside Joe. "I'm real sorry I cussed you out last night about not getting any of the fencing done. I know it couldn't have been easy to do all of them calves all by yourself, and I don't imagine that you had much time to do anything else afterwards."

"I'm sorry too," Adam added once Hoss was finished. "Since you're going to be out of action for a while, Hoss and I'll come back up tomorrow and get this fence finished."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Ben told his sons. "Let's have lunch and then get back home and get this boy into bed."

Joe was perfectly agreeable to all of this and _was glad that he wasn't an only child. _

The end 

April 2005


End file.
